Monday, January 16, 2006

Berkshires and Muffins

“Wow, that’s so rich!” said Louise as she tasted another one of my creations – butternut squash and hazelnut lasagne. We were deliciously achy after a day of snow shoeing, having dinner to the sound of the crackling fire and Madeleine Peyroux, enjoying each melty forkful of the creamy béchamel that ended with an earthy crunch of hazelnuts.

Jason, his Mom, Louise, and I spent 5 wonderful days in the Berkshires. Of course, some real snow would be nice, but after we came to terms with the mini-spring in the middle of January (can you believe the temperatures hit 55F!), we had a great time. We even got to ski for couple of hours with whatever snow was left on the ground, and became addicted to snowshoeing, which works in any snow conditions.

I loved Becket, MA – the town (or lack there of) where we were renting a house. The whole town consisted of a post office, a convenience store, and a cross-country skiing farm. No cute tourist shops, no restaurants, no cafes, no traffic lights, and no people. The closest real town was 30 minutes away. Luckily, we came prepared with 5 bags of food.

This was a perfect time for all those winter comfort foods that became my family’s favorites over the years: bluefish with crispy potatoes (I substituted celery root for half of potatoes this time and it was even better), beef stew with apricots and prunes (judging by the number of Mmmm's, this was everyone's favorite), butternut squash and hazelnut lasagne that I found on epicurious.com years ago, the world’s greatest French toast made with Iggy’s raisin walnut bread, and blinchiki (Russian crêpes) filled with farmer’s cheese.

There were some experiments as well, and although they were all in the area of baking (not my forte), I have no disasters to report, and quite a few successes. Thanks to the Seasonal Cook’s recipe, I finally baked a great banana bread (to be a subject of a post in the near future). Chocolate Bread Pudding with Sour Cherries (a recipe from Perdix restaurant in Boston via “The Way We Cook” book) was excellent, if a bit outrageous with 2 cups of cream, 1 cup of half and half, and close to a stick of butter.

I always feel like I make a bad impression on Louise, who is a nutritionist, because my special occasion dishes are not exactly the healthiest (and whenever she visits is of course a special occasion :) But she is an absolute sweetheart and tolerates all that cream and butter heroically without even a trace of rebuke. Besides being a nutritionist, Louise is also an amazing baker (that’s where Jason gets his baking gene), and I have to admit that not even 2 cups of cream and a stick of butter could make anything I baked come close to her Flax Carrot Apple Muffins – the greatest baking discovery of this trip. These lumpy looking things make an overly healthy impression at first glance, but take a bite and you are hooked. Chunky, moist, and barely sweet, these muffins are to a carrot cake as an elegant Pinot Noir is to an over-oaked Cabernet. Whenever we’d get back from a hike, I’d curl up by the fire and grab one with tea, savoring its dark earthy richness and the crunch of walnuts. Louise says it’s just a good recipe, but I think it’s her magic touch.

Louise’s Flax Carrot Apple Muffins(adopted from the muffin recipe on the back of Bob’s Red Mill flaxseed meal)

That was fast :) Thank you so much for the feedback! I believe the original recipe called for 15 muffin cups, but since most muffin pans come in multiples of 6, Louise told me that she just divided the remaining batter among the 12 muffin cups. They probably end up being more than 3/4 cups full. I'll update the recipe with this info. So glad you enjoyed them!

Add me to the growing fan club of these muffins! The scent that fills the house while they bake is wonderful, they taste wonderful. Interesting, however, I made a half recipe (though added more carrot and buttermilk/egg and a jar of baby food) and still got a dozen good-sized muffins! My version's here but I suspect it's just a great recipe that begs for individual variation.

I am gluten free so I made the following modifications: I used 1&1/2 cups brown rice flour, 1&1/2 cups flax seed meal, 1&1/2 cups grated green apple (no carrots), 1 cup ground pecans instead of the walnuts, 3 eggs instead of 2, 1/3 cup olive oil, and only 1/3 cup milk. Other than that, I used all the same ingredients.:) This made 12 large muffins, which took 20 minutes to bake and they are delicious. A wonderful Easter treat for the morning. Thanks!